I’m a qualified and experienced professional genealogist and family historian.

I hold the Pharos Family History Skills & Strategies intermediate qualification, achieved with Distinction, and the Pharos / Society of Genealogists Advanced Certificate, also achieved with Distinction.

I am a Member of AGRA – the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives.  As such I undertake to operate fully according to the professional standards set down by the AGRA Code of Practice and Ethics.  I also offer clients the peace of mind of the AGRA Complaints Procedure.

I’m a lifelong learner and a qualified lecturer and trainer of adults. Previous qualifications at Higher Education level include my Law degree (LLB Hons), which included Family Law, Land Law, Trusts and Criminal Law.  Back then, I never realised I would one day be putting this legal knowledge to use in understanding the lives of my own and other people’s ancestors!

I also have a Masters degree in Politics (MSc Econ).  I’m passionate about social justice and politics, and I love researching the stories of ‘ordinary people’.  Drawing upon local, social and political history and the law, what fascinates me is the impact on the many of those big, important decisions made by the few.

Finally, I have a First Class Honours degree in Modern Languages (French & Spanish, BA Hons).  Although I appreciate that the relevance of this to family history is not immediately obvious, I regularly draw upon my sociolinguistics studies to help me work through spellings in the context of accent and dialect.  Although this degree was pursued ‘for fun’ (Yes, I know….!) producing essays in three different languages really provided the opportunity to develop my research, information and writing skills.

I’m a ‘reflective practitioner’, always looking for ways to improve what I do, and I look for useful Continuing Professional Development (‘CPD’) opportunities.

I hope that through the pages of this blog you’ll get to know me, my style, my commitment to quality and in-depth understanding.  I often use it to explore and deepen my own knowledge about an aspect of genealogy or family history, sometimes something I’m working on as part of a much bigger project.

I hope you’ll find something useful for yourself amongst the hints, tips and general thoughts about genealogical practice, the finds relating to my areas of genealogical interest (but hopefully of wider general appeal) and the odd story from my own ancestry.

To find out more about my Genealogy Research Services, please click [here]

To contact me, please click [here]

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I’m based on the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England, and professionally much of my work is here, although for work that can be carried out online, I cover the whole of England.

However, my personal family research interests are largely based in Yorkshire.  They include: